Court records in Hialeah voter-fraud case show more voters got help with absentee ballots

Ramon Del Pino can’t say for sure whom he voted for last month. And the blind man from Hialeah also can’t identify the two women who came to his home to help him vote.

When interviewed July 31 by police detectives investigating absentee-ballot fraud, Del Pino said he told the women that he wanted to vote for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, but “he allowed the two females to choose the remaining candidates for him.”

Del Pino is among more than a dozen people interviewed by police investigating ballot-broker Deisy Cabrera, who is facing a felony vote fraud charge and two misdemeanor counts of illegal ballot possession. Prosecutors on Wednesday released police reports from interviews with Del Pino and 16 other voters whose ballots Cabrera, a so-called boletera, is accused of collecting before the Aug. 14 primary election.

The most serious charge Cabrera faces is a felony count for allegedly forging the signature of 81-year-old Zulema Gomez, who lies unresponsive from a brain tumor in a Miami Springs nursing home. Cabrera has pleaded not guilty.

At least three other voters told police that Cabrera either suggested candidates or filled out portions of the ballots for them, the newly released records show.

And some voters said they were guided to Cabrera by local politicians.

Eloisa Abreu told police that Cabrera came to help her vote after she called the office of state Sen. Rene Garcia, a Hialeah Republican, asking for assistance with her ballot, the records show. Abreu said she voted for her favored candidates in better-known races, but she followed Cabrera’s advice on judicial candidates.